Database Driven Multi-Level Horizontal CSS Menu With PHP And MYSQL

There is no doubt in the truth that A website should have a good and proper navigation from user point of view to attract more visitors. Creating css navigation using php and mysql is always a headache for php newbies. In this article I’ve told that how to manage a horizontal css navigation menu from a single mysql table and a small piece of PHP code. Instead of wasting your time I come to our main tutorial. Go through the following points and make your own navigation menu.

1. Database Table “menus”:

First of all make your database table to manage the menus as shown below.

As you are seeing, the table has only four fields. First column is id of each menu that is primary key and last column is the id of parent of each menu. You’ll understand yourself by seeing the structure. Although I’ve given the demo sql database dump in zip file.

2.  Style Sheet Or Markup (style.css) :

Just apply the following css to your navigation menu.

#cssmenu ul,
#cssmenu li,
#cssmenu span,
#cssmenu a {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  position: relative;
}
#cssmenu {
  height: 49px;
  border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;
  background: #141414;
  background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAxCAIAAACUDVRzAAAAA3NCSVQICAjb4U/gAAAALElEQVQImWMwMrJi+v//PxMDw3+m//8ZoPR/qBgDEhuXGLoeYswhXg8R5gAAdVpfoJ3dB5oAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) 100% 100%;
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #32323a), color-stop(100%, #141414));
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  border-bottom: 2px solid #e00f16;
}
#cssmenu:after,
#cssmenu ul:after {
  content: '';
  display: block;
  clear: both;
}
#cssmenu a {
  background: #141414;
  background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAxCAIAAACUDVRzAAAAA3NCSVQICAjb4U/gAAAALElEQVQImWMwMrJi+v//PxMDw3+m//8ZoPR/qBgDEhuXGLoeYswhXg8R5gAAdVpfoJ3dB5oAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) 100% 100%;
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #32323a), color-stop(100%, #141414));
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #32323a 0%, #141414 100%);
  color: #ffffff;
  display: inline-block;
  font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
  font-size: 12px;
  line-height: 49px;
  padding: 0 20px;
  text-decoration: none;
}
#cssmenu ul {
  list-style: none;
}
#cssmenu > ul {
  float: left;
}
#cssmenu > ul > li {
  float: left;
}
#cssmenu > ul > li:hover:after {
  content: '';
  display: block;
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  bottom: 0;
  border-left: 10px solid transparent;
  border-right: 10px solid transparent;
  border-bottom: 10px solid #e00f16;
  margin-left: -10px;
}
#cssmenu > ul > li:first-child > a {
  border-radius: 5px 0 0 0;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px 0 0 0;
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px 0 0 0;
}
#cssmenu > ul > li:last-child > a {
  border-radius: 0 5px 0 0;
  -moz-border-radius: 0 5px 0 0;
  -webkit-border-radius: 0 5px 0 0;
}
#cssmenu > ul > li.active > a {
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
  background: #070707;
  background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAxCAIAAACUDVRzAAAAA3NCSVQICAjb4U/gAAAALklEQVQImWNQU9Nh+v//PxMDw3+m//8ZkNj/mRgYIHxy5f//Z0BSi18e2TwS5QG4MGB54HL+mAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==) 100% 100%;
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #26262c), color-stop(100%, #070707));
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
}
#cssmenu > ul > li:hover > a {
  background: #070707;
  background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAxCAIAAACUDVRzAAAAA3NCSVQICAjb4U/gAAAALklEQVQImWNQU9Nh+v//PxMDw3+m//8ZkNj/mRgYIHxy5f//Z0BSi18e2TwS5QG4MGB54HL+mAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==) 100% 100%;
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #26262c), color-stop(100%, #070707));
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #26262c 0%, #070707 100%);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 3px #000000;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub {
  z-index: 1;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub:hover > ul {
  display: block;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub ul {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  width: 200px;
  top: 100%;
  left: 0;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub ul li {
  *margin-bottom: -1px;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub ul li a {
  background: #e00f16;
  border-bottom: 1px dotted #ec6f73;
  filter: none;
  font-size: 11px;
  display: block;
  line-height: 120%;
  padding: 10px;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub ul li:hover a {
  background: #b00c11;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub .has-sub:hover > ul {
  display: block;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub .has-sub ul {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  left: 100%;
  top: 0;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub .has-sub ul li a {
  background: #b00c11;
  border-bottom: 1px dotted #d06d70;
}
#cssmenu .has-sub .has-sub ul li a:hover {
  background: #80090d;
}

3. PHP Script (index.php):

This is the main PHP file that will fetch the menus from database and show them in your navigation menu using while loop. The script is written for 3 Level CSS menu. You can extend it for nth level by running the loop n times as it is.

<?php
//database connection
$dbname = 'csc';
$link = mysql_connect("localhost","root","") or die("Couldn't make connection.");
$db = mysql_select_db($dbname, $link) or die("Couldn't select database");
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Database Driven Multi-Level Horizontal CSS Menu With PHP And MYSQL</title>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" />
</head>
<body>
	<h2>Database Driven Multi-Level Horizontal CSS Menu With PHP And MYSQL</h2>
<div style="width:728px;margin:auto;">
	<div id='cssmenu'>
		<ul>
<?php
function query($parent_id) { //function to run a query
	$query = mysql_query ( "SELECT * FROM menus WHERE parent_id=$parent_id" );
	return $query;
}
function has_child($query) { //This function checks if the menus has childs or not
	$rows = mysql_num_rows ( $query );
	if ($rows > 0) {
		return true;
	} else {
		return false;
	}
}
function fetch_menu($query) {
	while ( $result = mysql_fetch_array ( $query ) ) {
		$menu_id = $result ['id'];
		$menu_name = $result ['menu_name'];
		$menu_link = $result ['menu_link'];
		echo "<li  class='has-sub '><a href='{$menu_link}'><span>{$menu_name}</span></a>";
		if (has_child ( query ( $menu_id ) )) {
			echo "<ul>";
			fetch_menu ( query ( $menu_id ) );
			echo "</ul>";
		}
		echo "</li>";
	}
}
fetch_menu (query(0)); //call this function with 0 parent id
?>
		</ul>
	</div>
	</div>
</body>
</html>

The tutorial is only for making you understand that what is happening. Otherwise you can download the zip file given above and implement it in your website. Just by changing the database connection properties and change your menu names and their links in database table. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Waiting for your comments.

Note: The same code can be used for both horizontal and vertical css menus.